Sorority Subterfuge, page 7
I really wished Torstein spoke in plain English. The magical inner-ear translator activated by the time-traveling dagger we’d used to jump here could only get me so far. “Smaller words, guru.”
“You and I can touch the stones because our energies are aligned with theirs. We’re on the side of the light—not the darkness.”
I still had no idea what he was talking about. If this was some weird way of flirting with me, he had—
Wait. Did he say . . .
“Did you call them quanta crystals?” My hand crept toward my back.
“I did.”
Skit.
“Quanta crystals.” I reached behind me until my fingertips brushed the hilt of my dagger. “As in, crystals infused with cosmic energy?”
“Yes.” The flickering light illuminated Torstein’s too-intense stare.
“The same crystals that are alleged to be imbued with magic thanks to an astronomical alignment and a charged beam of light?” I’d heard this story in Astronomy. My teacher had written these particular crystals off as a myth, while my classmates wanted to use them to finance their dream homes and student films. But the truth was . . .
Oh, gods.
“Again, yes.”
My pulse stilled. If Torstein was who I thought he was, then I’d jeopardized everything we’d come here to protect.
I had to get out of there.
I checked that Freia’s dagger was secure against my spine before wrapping my palm around the hilt of my fighting blade. “Are these crystals, by any chance, ingredients one might use for, say, a spell?”
“One to Control Mankind And All The Realms?” Torstein’s eyes narrowed.
Double skit.
My brain clicked into combat mode. Without another word, I yanked my dagger from its sheath and charged toward Torstein. My blade nicked the side of his forearm as he leapt from my path.
“Ingrid! What are you—”
“You’re working with him?” I shifted my weight to deliver a fierce kick to Torstein’s chest. He stumbled backward, his shoulders slamming into the wall.
“No!” Torstein raised his hands, but I pivoted onto one foot, stalling his attack with a strong roundhouse. The slap of my bare heel on his arms echoed around the room, creating an eerie dissonance with the still-singing crystals. As Torstein righted himself, I swung my dagger-arm and jammed the blade into his thigh. He cringed, but didn’t make a sound as he wrapped one hand around mine and ripped the weapon from his leg. “Ingrid. Stop this.”
“That’s why you brought me here?”
My left fist flew toward his jaw. He easily blocked the blow.
“You’re collecting the ingredients for his spell, and you want—”
Do not let him get Freia’s dagger. Do not.
“What I want is—arugh.” Torstein winced as I pulled my hand free of his grasp and slammed it back down. My blade pierced his thigh a second time. His hair fell in front of his face as he folded forward. He removed the blade and flung it across the room before lifting his head to meet my steely stare. “I wouldn’t do that again.”
“I’m not afraid of you.” I shuffled backward, toward the crystals. If he thought I was leaving them with him, he wasn’t as bright as his peace-loving followers believed.
“Well, maybe you should be.” Torstein raised one hand and held it at chest level. When I reached for the crystals, he sent a beam of light from his palm. It struck my hand with a white-hot heat.
I swore loudly, shaking off the burn.
“I just want to talk to you.” Said the crazy man shooting hand beams. “I’m not crazy, Ingrid.”
“How are you reading my—never mind.” I flung myself at the crystals, intending to tackle them to the ground. But no sooner had I leapt for their table than another beam shot from Torstein’s palm. This one struck me in the chest, knocking the breath from my lungs and suspending me midair. My legs kicked as I struggled to break free, but it was no use. I was trapped. The dark mage’s minion had me strung up—immobilized, incapacitated, and completely and totally incapable of fighting him off.
Think, Ingrid. What would Axel do?
Axel would kill me for getting myself into this situation. Of that, I was certain.
“I won’t let you do this,” I swore. I wrenched my shoulders from side to side, fighting against Torstein’s hold. With each twist, a fresh burn erupted across my chest. Gods! “Whatever you throw at me—whatever black magic you possess—you’re going to have to fight me to the death. Because, Odin as my witness, I will never—augh!”
“I just want you to listen to me.”
“Put me down or so help me I’ll make sure you rot in Hel—”
“Enough! I’m one of you. Can’t you see that?” Torstein raised his hands, and I dropped to the ground with a thud. Pain shot across my back, and I arched my spine to shift the guard of Freia’s blade from the crater it now carved into my skin.
“Augh.” I rolled to one side and struggled to push myself up. I dug my fingertips into the floor as the fire across my chest raged anew. How did I make this stop?
“I’m not with the dark mage—I’ve spent the past six hundred years fighting against him. We’re on the same team, Ingrid.”
“I don’t believe you.” I spoke through gritted teeth, rubbing my still-burning flesh. “Only a mage could do that kind of magic.”
“Correct.” Torstein spoke urgently. “Only a mage can do true magic. But not all mages are dark.”
My breath hitched. “Wait. Are you saying . . .”
“I’m a light mage, Ingrid. The one who created the quanta crystals and scattered them across the realms. And I want to join your fight.”
Chapter 10
SEVEN WORDS. WITH SEVEN little words, Torstein had changed everything.
“What do you mean, you want to join our fight?”
“We have to stop Sverrir.”
“Who?”
“The dark mage,” Torstein explained. “If he acquires the materials he needs to complete his spell, he’ll use it to destroy this world . . . and rebuild one based in chaos.”
“I know that.” My breath shuddered as a residual heat wave coursed through me. I brought both hands to my collarbone. “But how do you—arugh.”
“Let me help.” Torstein stepped closer. “May I?”
I eyed him warily. “Are you going to burn me? Or string me up the air?”
“I apologize. I was protecting the crystals. So long as you pose no threat to them, it won’t happen again.”
“It better not,” I muttered. With great reluctance, I allowed Torstein to place his palm across my sternum. He closed his eyes and murmured something I couldn’t quite make out. But the moment the words passed his lips, relief arrived. The burning dissipated, seemingly absorbed by his touch. In its place, my skin was left with a pleasant tingle—one made only slightly awkward by the fact that Torstein’s hand was just inches away from my breasts. “Ahem.”
Torstein’s eyes blinked open. Piercing blue orbs bored straight through me, their intensity making me shift where I sat.
“You are still uncomfortable,” he deduced.
“You’re almost touching my . . .” I jutted my chin downward.
“Of course.” Torstein withdrew his hand, then knelt on the ground beside me. “Does anything else hurt?”
My spine ached. One knee throbbed from where I’d cracked it on the hard floor. And a dull pounding in the back of my head let me know it was strongly considering exploding. But I didn’t want to give Axel another reason to kill Torstein, so I just shrugged. “I’m fine.”
“I can heal you remotely if you’re worried about Axel.”
“How do you know what I was—”
“Shh.” Torstein raised his hand. A pale-pink mist immediately swept forward. I tried not to panic as it coursed over me, cloaking me in a light layer of pressure.
“Are you sure this is—”
“One more moment.” Torstein raised and lowered his hand before pulling his fingers into his palm. The mist slowly retracted, taking with it every drop of my residual pain. “That should be better.”
A quick scan of my injuries confirmed his diagnosis. How did he do that? “Uh, thanks?”
“I apologize for hurting you.” Torstein retrieved my dagger from the corner of the room and placed it on the ground beside me. “And I am sorry for the secrecy. These crystals are very important to me. They must be protected. Because the last time Sverrir went after them, he . . .”
Torstein’s face fell, a mask of despair marring his serenity.
“Why don’t you tell me how you got involved in all of this?” I picked up my dagger and rested it across my lap. Just in case.
“Of course.” Torstein held his palm over his thigh. The pink mist immediately set to work healing the stab wounds I’d inflicted.
Not sorry.
“I come from a long line of light magic wielders,” Torstein began. “Mages, as we came to be known. For generations, my family stood alongside fellow warriors of the light. We fought to protect this world from the dark forces who wished to overtake it. Fire giants and frost giants, demons and wraiths. And of course, the dark mages those creatures use as vessels here on Earth.”
My fingertips brushed the guard of my dagger. “Go on.”
“I was fairly young during the original planetary alignment—the one that occurred during the Viking Age. I was not yet advanced enough to understand its significance. And I was still hiding my powers then—magic wielders were not looked kindly upon during that time.”
Didn’t I know it . . .
“But as the years went on, other mages passed down stories of the artifacts created during that alignment—of their ability to perform miracles and to generate life. These were the kinds of objects men had gone to war in order to possess. When we realized a second alignment was coming, we feared the power it could create. A surge that funneled through so many planets was bound to imbue whatever it touched with unparalleled cosmic strength. If it activated a light object, its properties would be enhanced for the greatest good of all. But if it activated a dark one . . .”
“Let me guess. Chaos?”
“Precisely.” Torstein brushed an errant stand of hair from his face. “And so, the mages of the Council of Light convened in northern Norway. We mapped out the exact point of impact and traveled to it. And we brought along the most powerful crystal in our possession.”
“The quanta crystals?” I guessed.
“Crystal,” Torstein corrected. “Singular. Back then, it was one pure formation, forged in the heart of an Icelandic volcano and carried by dolphins to the shores of Lapland. For hundreds of years it was protected by indigenous tribes. But shortly before the second alignment, they turned it over to the Council of Light. Their elders sensed a threat, and they knew we were the crystal’s best chance at survival.”
I drew my knees to my chest. “Continue.”
“When the planets aligned, we set the crystal in a sacred grove, formed our protective circle, and waited. The surge came just as predicted—devastatingly strong and immensely powerful. Its reverberations killed two of our council, while a third went mad—he touched the crystal before the power had time to settle. Those of us who remained knew we had to protect the quanta. Our war with the dark mages had already begun, and we had a dragon waiting nearby to carry the crystal to a cave in the far north. But when we signaled, our transport didn’t come. Our enemies had found us. And they’d massacred our most sacred creature.”
Torstein’s head bowed. “My memories of the battle are blurred. Most of my brethren were killed. The dark mages had the high ground—along with the element of surprise. Ama and I were the only survivors. We managed to drag the crystal to a nearby cove. But the dark mages were tracking us, and we knew the only way to protect the stone was to divide it. Ama broke it into a dozen pieces, and we each took six to scatter across the world. I hid mine among the Northern Territories, while Ama took hers to what was then uncharted land here in the west. We were supposed to meet in Iceland—to build our life together once the crystals were safely hidden. But Ama never came. Sverrir had followed her west. And he’d . . .”
Pain haunted Torstein’s face. Agony danced across his eyes, and I couldn’t help but reach out to rest my hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry, Torstein.”
He merely nodded. “Sverrir abandoned his search for many years. But he’s back on his hunt, and he cannot to succeed. My twin soul gave her life to stop him. I won’t allow that to have been for nothing.”
Behind me, the crystals sang louder. I glanced over my shoulder to find them bathed in an even brighter glow. “These crystals here, are they the ones from Europe?”
“Ja,” Torstein confirmed. “I collected them after Ama’s death. Then I came to search for hers. But Ama was more powerful than I could ever be. She cloaked them so well that I’m still unable to track them. But I understand that to be a great skill of yours. And I’m hoping that together, we’ll able to do what I alone could not.”
“Do you really think we can find them?”
“I hope to gods that we can. Because if Sverrir gets to even one of them before we do . . .”
My thumb pressed against my dagger. “I’ve got a lot riding on him not enacting that spell too. The place—and the time—that I come from . . . he wants to wipe it from existence.”
I bit on my bottom lip, hoping Torstein wouldn’t ask me to explain.
He met my gaze with a calm nod. “Then it seems we have a mutual goal.”
Whew.
“I guess we do.” The crystals’ volume increased again, and a brilliant pulse shot through the room. I raised my hand to my eyes, squinting against the light. “Do you know how to turn them down?”
Torstein chuckled. “They approve of our partnership. They long to be reunited with their other half.”
“Uh . . . sure.” Because crystals having feelings was totally a thing that made sense.
Snort.
“I understand that much of this is strange to you,” Torstein offered. “But many so-called inanimate objects have feelings.”
“How are you doing that?” I bristled. “Are you reading my mind?”
“Proximity to the stones enhances my gifts. I can stop if you’d prefer?”
“I would prefer. I would prefer that very much, thank you. If I have something to say, I’ll say it to your face.”
Torstein tilted his head. “Why don’t you try it?”
“I can’t read minds.” Obviously.
“You’ll find that you can here. What am I thinking?” Torstein closed his eyes and sat in silence.
Once again, my day had taken a bizarre turn. “Torstein, I don’t think—”
“Just try, Ingrid.”
Sigh.
“Fine. Uh . . . you’re hungry? We need to get back for the afternoon session?”
“Both true, but neither of those was my predominant thought. Try again.”
“Look, this is insane. I’m glad we’re on the same side here, but—”
“Please.” Torstein opened his eyes. “Try again.”
“Okay.” I sighed. Staring intently at Torstein’s forehead, I focused on whatever mysteries were hidden beneath that thick mane of hair. “You’re thinking . . . uh . . . oh. Oh! My gods, you’ve killed people with that crazy hand beam thing.”
“Yes.” A slow smile spread across Torstein’s face. “Well done, Ingrid. I told you that you could do it.”
“Ja. Well, it’s no great victory if I have to see that.” I shuddered. “Think about something else. Something less disturbing.”
“All right. Try again.”
I stared at Torstein’s brow. After a moment, a low voice filled my head.
. . . and the afternoon session will focus on cleansing the sixth chakra, so we’ll need to ensure absolute silence from the western-facing—
“You’re going over your meditation.” I arched one brow. “This is insane. How did your voice get in my head?”
“Good.” Torstein stood and crossed to the table. He removed two of the crystals from their location in the center and held one toward me. “Take this. It will link us into perpetuity.”
“Into what?”
“We’ll be able to communicate beyond the stones’ physical presence. Indefinitely.”
“Uh, no offense, but I’m not sure I want you in my head all the time.” Or ever.
“Our connection will remain at will,” Torstein said. “I won’t be able to hear your thoughts unless you allow it.”
“Even so, that’s a really weird—”
“Sverrir is not to be underestimated,” Torstein snapped. “Ama was the most powerful light mage I’ve ever known. If he managed to kill her . . .” Torstein drew a shaky breath.
“Listen, I get that—”
“Our alliance is key to defeating him.” Torstein pulled his shoulders back. “Our goals are mutually aligned. And if we do not utilize every advantage we have, we will fail. So, I beg of you. Please. Take the crystal.”
I closed my eyes. “You won’t hear me unless I want you to?”
“You have my word.”
“And you really think this is absolutely necessary?”
“You and I will face Sverrir together. It’s inevitable. But he’s going to isolate us, and without a means of communication . . . we’ll both be destroyed. And our worlds along with us.”
Ice raced through my veins. “How can you be sure?”
“Because I’ve seen it,” Torstein said quietly. “I’ve seen the end of our worlds, Ingrid. And it all starts today.”
Chapter 11
“WHAT THE HELHEIM, TORSTEIN?”
“Sverrir is about to collect a key item.” Torstein frowned. “Darkness has been swirling through this realm all morning. It began shortly after our meditation and has been steadily increasing since.”
“Where is he?” I jumped to my feet.
“I don’t know.” Torstein shook his head. “I only know that he’s one step closer to completing his goal. I’m not sure which ingredients he’s already collected, or which remain unprocured—besides the quanta crystals, of course. I’ve made certain he can never get his hands on these.”
